IA&B August 2014 by Indian Architect & Builder Magazine

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VOL 27 (12)

AUGUST 2014

www.iabforum.com

INDIAN ARCHITECT & BUILDER

RUBBLE RESURRECTED FOCUS Pritzker Architecture Prize, Winner (2014) Shigeru Ban

VOL 27 (12) | AUGUST 2014 | WWW.IABFORUM.COM RNI Registration No. 46976/87, ISSN 0971-5509 INDIAN ARCHITECT AND BUILDER

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Printed & Published by Maulik Jasubhai Shah on behalf of Jasubhai Media Pvt Ltd (JMPL), 26, Maker Chamber VI, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021. Printed at M B Graphics, B-28, Shri Ram Industrial Estate, ZG D Ambekar Marg, Wadala, Mumbai 400031and Published from Mumbai - 3rd Floor, Taj Building, 210, Dr D N Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 001. Editor: Maulik Jasubhai Shah, 26, Maker Chamber VI, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021. Indian Architect & Builder: (ISSN 0971-5509), RNI No 46976/87, is a JMPL monthly publication. Reproduction in any manner, in whole or part, in English or any other language is strictly prohibited. We welcome articles, but do not accept responsibility for contributions lost in the mail.

30 CURRENT

The latest news, events and competitions in architecture and design

from India and abroad.

34 PRODUCTS

Crafted or manufactured products of use in contemporary settings.

SPECIAL FOCUS

A brief introduction from the I A&B Editorial on the focus theme.

Pritzker Prize

Introduction

Shigeru Ban

Paper Architect Shigeru Ban’s unconventional designs that earned

him the esteemed international award.

ARCHITECTURE

Bhadli Village

The firm that built homes and lives in Gujarat post the traumatic

earthquake of 2001.

Off Grid

Michael Reynolds’ participatory design methods

70 ACADEMIA

Utopia Deferred

Building Resilience to Disasters through Appropriate

Technology

Details about the potential for creation of seismic resistant

buildings for a safer environment.

IA&B CACHE

Of Callous Construction and the Ground Beneath Our Feet

SPACE FRAMES

Shadows

The complexities of humanity through the lens.

Cov

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eru Shig

Ban

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe Indian Architect & Builder - August 2014

Architecture strives for permanence. Nature reminds us of its futility. Since the advent of agrarian society, man has attempted to tame nature and build a stable existence. From the majesty of the soaring Gothic cathedrals to the ambition of the modernists, every step has taken us further from the transient and seasonal dwellings of our early existence. Rigid and defiant, we have sought to wage war on nature. Disasters, both natural and man-made have tested our resolve and ingenuity. This issue of Indian Architect and Builder focuses on the efforts of the architectural community to rebuild after a catastrophe. Pritzker award winner, Shigeru Ban, inverts the illusion of architectural permanence by building with materials as ephemeral as paper and cardboard. Instead of viewing the destruction of a village as an opportune tabula rasa, architect Brinda Somaya, seeks to infuse reconstruction with the memories of the past. Controversial architect Michael Reynolds enables a participatory process towards rebuilding a more sustainable approach to dwelling. Instead of viewing disasters and trauma as an intrusive force meant to be brought under control, architects are now using them as enforced opportunities to recalibrate. Out of the debris and debacle will emerge a new architecture. Indian Architect & Builder - August 2014

THE PAPER ARCHITECT

Pritzker Laureate Shigeru Ban is well known for his innovative use of materials and for his compassionate approach to design. For a little over three decades, Ban, the founder of the Voluntary Architects Network, has applied his extensive knowledge of recyclable materials, particularly paper and cardboard, to constructing high-quality, low-cost shelters for victims of disaster across the world. Text: Aastha Deshpande Images: courtesy Shigeru Ban Architects

ebruary 2011, Christchurch, New Zealand: The tectonic activity in the country’s second largest city culminates into one of the country’s deadliest disasters killing 185 people. The magnitude 6.3 earthquake caused widespread damage across Christchurch with damage exacerbated by buildings and infrastructure already being weakened by the 2010 earthquake and its aftershocks. Humans turn to the supreme power in trying times. The earthquake however, inflicted crippling damage on the 1864 Anglican Cathedral, a symbol of the city. The house of the almighty, a place for solace, lay in shambles. Shigeru Ban, a Tokyo-born, 56-year-old architect with offices in Tokyo, Paris and New York, is rare in the field of architecture. He designs elegant, innovative work for private clients, and uses the same inventive and resourceful design approach for his extensive humanitarian efforts. For twenty years Ban has traveled to sites of natural and man-made disasters around the world, to work with local citizens, volunteers and students, to design and construct simple, dignified, low-cost, recyclable shelters and community buildings for Indian Architect & Builder - August 2014

the disaster victims. Ban’s incredible usage of cardboard as the chief material is now his signature style of building. The house of God needed rebuilding. In response to the crisis, Ban was asked to design a new temporary cathedral. “…the strength of the building has nothing to do with the strength of the material. Even concrete buildings can be destroyed by earthquakes very easily, but paper buildings cannot.” Ban had been developing recycled cardboard tubes as a disaster relief building material since 1986. Each paper tube is coated with waterproof polyurethane and flame-retardants to eliminate the possibility of being vulnerable to fire. These tubes are one of the safest earthquake proof materials. Steering clear of a cathedral with a gothic appearance, Ban’s answer to the city’s need for a temporary cathedral was a striking triangular building made of 98 cardboard tubes wrapped around colourful glass triangles and 8 steel shipping containers. These surround a

pritzker prize

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Christchurch Cathedral, New Zealand Indian Architect & Builder - August 2014

Utopia Deferred Text: Ishita Chatterjee

‘…. the fundamental characteristics of Futurist architecture will be its impermanence and transience. Things will endure less than us. Every generation must build its own city.’ - Antonio Sant’Elia

ant’Elia’s vision is both chilling, and liberating. Evolution is taking place at a pace never felt before and change is rapid. Things are getting outdated faster than change itself; antiquated even as they are created. Architecture in this world is neither a symbol of security, nor shelter. The very system that was once meant to be an instrument of permanence and certainty is going through a radical change – uncertainty. The present is fighting this battle to balance ‘continuity and change, rupture and recrudescence’ 1. Future is a crucible of possibilities. Future is uncertain owing to its changeable, mutable characteristics. Order and security – owing to certainty – is comforting. Uncertainty makes us uncomfortable and insecure. Nature, wars, revolutions have a way of shaking people who are blinkered to new ideas from the slumber and humdrum of everyday certainty and security. Present is torn between the nostalgia and romanticism of history and the adventure and thrill of the unpredictable future. Architects are scared to embrace this ephemerality, this unfamiliarity because they are too scared to embrace chaos. They struggle to find order within chaos, pattern within chaos, in order to be comfortable. ‘Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. ’ 2 Disaster strikes without warning. It dislodges people from any familiar context. Disaster and trauma break the rhythm of day to day existence. The political, social, economic, cultural, personal climate gets impregnated with fear and uncertainty as these determinative forces

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Model of Ville Radieuse © Fondation Le Corbusier

Indian Architect & Builder - August 2014

of change undergo a transformation. The city remains in a convoluted state of destruction and construction. Post-disaster, it is not possible to return to the older ways of living, hence architecture calls for a different understanding of habitation of space. The architect’s role then, is not mere designing of spaces but designing living. Post-disaster construction is a condition that architects are subjected to without intent, and faced with such a scenario, architects have four directions that they might take: First direction: Return to the pre-disaster condition The idea here, is to perceive the disaster as an intruder to the otherwise consistent course of existence. Hence in order to heal the wounds of the disaster, the architect tries to restore living conditions to the pre-disaster time. Second direction: Destroy the evidence of disaster and build a new city, a new future Here, along with the desire to get back to a consistent course of existence, the desire to forget the trauma exists. Due to the social, political, economic transformations, the architect realises it is impossible to get back to the pre-war condition. The context, along with its inhabitants, has undergone a drastic shift. Yet, the longing for the earlier familiar lifestyle is present. In such scenarios, leaders and architects urge the inhabitants to forget the event as well its consequence and promise them a new and better future. This approach is evident in Nehru’s vision for Chandigarh when he said, “Let this be a new town, symbolic of freedom of India unfettered by the traditions of the past, an expression of the nation’s faith in the future.” 3 Hence, he called upon a foreigner for reconstruction since he was distant from the country’s destruction and trauma. Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh was based on his designs of the radiant city. Because of its unprecedented nature, disaster and trauma transcend order and systematisation. Corbusier’s reaction to an order-less post war city was standardization as well as strict order and symmetry. He proposed that the new city be built on a clean slate, on the grounds of the destroyed post-war cities. “And why the devil do men insist on living in difficult or dangerous climates? I’ve no idea! But I can observe a worsening situation: The variety of climates had forged races, cultures, customs, dress, and work methods suited to the obtaining conditions. …Alas, the machine age has, as it were, shuffled the cards — the age-old cards of the world. Since the machine age, the product of progress, has disturbed everything, couldn’t it also give us the means to salvation?

academia

…Multiplicity of climates, play of seasons, a break with secular traditions — confusion, disorder, and the martyrdom of man. ” 4 - Le Corbusier Le Corbusier’s design was radically different than the cities that existed in India. Here, the architect adopting the second direction could also propose a newer image of the old city. So, the new city is a new future built upon the context of the pre-disaster old city. Third direction: The post-disaster new city is built from the damaged old city The post-disaster city is drained of all its finances and resources. The city suffers such great loss, that sometimes the only building materials left for its reconstruction are scrap metal, airplane parts, broken wood, cardboard and plastic. It is not possible to return to the earlier living conditions, as the lives of the people have been transformed drastically. The context; social, political, economic, personal everything has changed. What was once familiar is now unfamiliar; citizens are rendered aliens within their own landscape. It is also not possible to dream up a future free of the reminders of disaster as the remainders of the disaster are the only possessions the city has. Left with no other alternative, architects have to provide resilient solutions by reinventing living conditions through use of the available material. “Architecture and war are not incompatible. Architecture is war. War is architecture. I am at war with my time, with history, with all authority that resides in fixed and frightened forms. I am one of millions who do not fit in, who have no home, no family, no doctrine, no firm place to call my own, no known beginning or end, no “sacred and primordial site.” I declare war on all icons and finalities, on all histories that would chain me with my own falseness, my own pitiful fears. I know only moments, and lifetimes that are as moments, and forms that appear with infinite strength, then melt into air. I am an architect, a constructor of worlds, a sensualist who worships the flesh, the melody, a silhouette against the darkening sky. I cannot know your name. Nor you can know mine. Tomorrow, we begin together the construction of a city.”

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Street view of ville Radieuse. © Fondation Le Corbusier

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This manifesto was written by Lebbeus Woods as a response to the siege of Sarajevo. Woods observes that architecture, that was meant to give shelter and protect people, had turned against them. Streets and public gathering spaces were converted to shooting galleries by snipers; buildings where people worked and lived were turned to death traps. People of Sarajevo were scared to walk out on the streets; they were petrified to look out of their windows fearing what they might see. There was a constant fear of seeing and being seen. They erected shields against these men with weapons, built temporary walls and covered their broken windows with scrap metal, cardboards, wood etc. Since material available for construction is limited, the buildings that are salvageable need to be saved through additions and reinforcements made to it – ’radical reconstruction’ 5. The Sarajevo window was covered with cardboard to protect the inhabitants from rain, cold and snow. According to Woods, the first priority goes to reconstruction of buildings that are used for sustenance – apartments and offices. The second priority goes to buildings of cultural importance – churches, synagogues, mosques. Since these buildings are of historical significance, they should be restored to their earlier glory. Indian Architect & Builder - August 2014

August 2014: shadow Indian Architect & Builder Magazine

Space Frames investigates issues of architecture and environment through the medium of photography. To contribute, write to us at iabedt@jasubhai.com or to the curator Dr Mathew at dr.djmathew@gmail.com.

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IN CONVERSATION Mario Botta, Mario Botta Architetto ARCHITECTURE Delhi Public School, Bengaluru: Khosla Associates Lateral House, Bengaluru: Gaurav Roy Choudhury Architects HERITAGE Adaptive Reuse of Jal Mahal Bijolai, Jodhpur: Grup.ISM Pvt Ltd CAMPAIGN: Architectural Education Women Students, Culture and Pedagogy: Madhavi Desai DELHI DIALOGUES Dwarka is the Chosen One

In Conversation Kashef Mahboob Chowdhury, URBANA Competition: TATA TISCON RAISE Street House: Sensen Designs, New Delhi Architecture KPIT Cummins Campus, Pune: Venkatraman Associates Academia Knowledgescapes : Neha Koul and Dr Gaurav Raheja

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